Ridge gourd Dal Curry - Peerkangai Rasavangi

Serves 3
Ridge gourd is one vegetable that tastes great in desserts and spicy gravies. I've only made desserts with it and sometimes I'll just drop it along with Drumstick in a sambar or make a nice chutney with the skin. Never knew that it could be prepared in such a delicious way.Well i guess the disadvantage of not being in a joint family is that you never get to learn traditional and authentic recipes .I've never ventured into our Kitchen to learn cooking from mom as long as I was at home,guess this would be the case with most girls.Just like every other Indian mom,my mom was the martyr in our home,doing all the work and never expecting any help from us.I never got a chance to stay with my mil too ,so didn't get to learn cooking from her too.So here I am with not much of idea about traditional Tamil recipes,guess most of which are getting extinct too.Have started hunting for authentic Tamil recipes and would sure cook and post them here :) Well the truth be told, the main reason I tried this recipe was that I forgot to shop for Onions and was looking for onion-less recipes when i came across this one :) So anytime you run out of onions & tomatoes this easy recipe would come in handy !

Ingredients :
To Pressure cook:
Ridge Gourd - 1.5 big
Moong dal - 1/2 cup
Channa Dal - 1/4 cup
Turmeric Powder - 1/4 tsp
salt as needed
To Dry Roast & Powder:
Whole Red Chillies - 6
Coriander seeds - 1 tbsp
Channa Dal - 1 tbsp
Urad dal - 1 tbsp
Desiccated coconut or grated fresh coconut - 2 tbsp
To Temper:
oil & ghee - 2 tsp
Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
Urad dal - 1 tsp
Curry leaves - 1 sprig

Method:

-Clean and Peel the ridge gourd.Preserve the skins if you wish to make a chutney from it.Chop into small pieces.
-Add all the things to pressure cook in a pressure cooker and pressure cook with 1 cup water on  high heat for 1 whistle and simmer for 7 minutes.
-Dry Roast all the Ingredients except for coconut until they are slightly brown.Then add the coconut and remove as soon as it turns slightly brown.Cool and grind to a fine powder.Add a little water and pulse just once to make a fine paste.If you are cooking for small kids like in my case,you can skip the Red chillies and double the amount of coriander seeds.
-Heat the oil & Ghee in a pan add the curry leaves,mustard seeds and urad dal. When they splutter add the pressure cookers contents .Mix good.Add the ground paste and mix well..Check for salt and add water to get the desired consistency.Let it simmer for 7 - 10 minutes.

Sending this to  South Indian Cooking Event hosted by Simply Tadka and Announced by Anu's Healthy Kitchen &  Learning to Cook - Dish name starts with R